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How a safe driver suddenly faced losing his licence

Tim Rayment was a model motorist who made a point of obeying the law to the letter. Then, in one forgetful and unlucky spell, he became a rueful casualty of speed-trap Britain. There’s something not quite right here, he says

Tony the taxi driver was not optimistic. "You've lost your licence," he said. He had plenty of experience of conveying motorists to court for speeding cases, and mine promised to be an open-and-shut example.

How quickly we can say goodbye to our licences. For years I was quietly proud as a high-mileage driver that mine was clean. But in the space of 12 weeks I went from three penalty points to an almost certain ban, and as I stood last Tuesday before Gloucester magistrates I knew that my life was about to change.

When you hear the details, you might think that I deserve to lose the privilege of driving, and I am not going to disagree. There is no excuse for travelling, even briefly, in light traffic and good visibility, on a motorway at 100mph. Even so, as I faced justice on the very spot where Fred West, the